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[tor-talk] IDEA: Set bridge shutdown
Hi, there.
I got an idea on how bridge operators of "part-time bridges" could help
to make the experience of bridge users a little better.
It seemed like a good idea, until I thought that there might not be so
many bridges that could be called unstable.
However, I wrote it down anyway. Maybe it's not as useless as I think,
after "finishing" it. I thought about it longer, but put it together in
10 minutes. It's still rough, but more thinking doesn't seem to improve it.
Below I've pasted the Overview and Motivation. The full version is attached.
Overview:
This is about setting the estimated shutdown time of bridges,
which could be set by bridge operators that don't have
their bridges run 24/7
It's an rough idea.
Motivation:
Relays should run 24/7, while bridges don't have to.
Unstable bridges can be a problem in terms of reachability.
The user experience is bad when two of three bridges go offline.
This should make disappearing bridges more predictable.
It should prevent that one gets bridges that power of 5 minutes
later.
BTW: Ideas dropped on the way (I thought about it and decided not to
write stuff down):
- Encrypt local data created by Tor
Good idea in the first place, but as I started to think about it I saw
more problems then benefit. (where to store the key or keys)
However I wanted to include this anyway. I guess there where thoughts on
that before.
Regards,
bastik_tor
Filename: set bridge shutdown.txt
Title: Set estimated shutdown time on bridges
Author: Sebastian G. (aka bastik_tor)
Created: 20-JAN-2012
Type: idea
Overview:
This is about setting the estimated shutdown time of bridges,
which could be set by bridge operators that don't have
their bridges run 24/7
It's an rough idea.
Motivation:
Relays should run 24/7, while bridges don't have to.
Unstable bridges can be a problem in terms of reachability.
The user experience is bad when two of three bridges go offline.
This should make disappearing bridges more predictable.
It should prevent that one gets bridges that power of 5 minutes
later.
Design:
The design assumes:
- the number of bridges that only run a few hours daily is big enough
to be a problem.
The bridge operator can set when the bridge will not be available.
This time should be set farther in the future, when in doubt.
This can be set for seven days.
This has to be set in UTC.
When nothing is set full reachability is asumed.
The made settings are passed to the BridgeDB (or it's successor).
The BridgeDB decides if a bridge will be given out based on
the time the bridge will be available.
When one appears to be an adversary, he could get only bridges
that will power off soon.
Security implications:
This idea was not made with security in mind.
It's not considered harmful.
Specification:
MON_shutdown hh:mm
TUE_shutdown hh:mm
WED_shutdown hh:mm
THR_shutdown hh:mm
FRI_shutdown hh:mm
STR_shutdown hh:mm
SUN_shutdown hh:mm
where hh:mm is UTC
Compatibility:
Bridges that don't set anything are assumed to be available all
the time.
Implementation:
BridgeDB (or it's successor) needs to process the settings and make
decisions on it.
Performance:
This should not have any performance impact.
Open questions:
Are there enough unstable relays?
Do users benefit from it?_______________________________________________
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